As Elephant 6 Recording Company co-founder, The Apples In Stereo’s frontman Rob Schneider assembled one of the most progressive an important movements in American rock’n’roll. Now, 14 years and seven releases into his band’s catalogue, he sounds almost trapped by the expectations that come with such a history. Having built a reputation for toying with […]
Three songs into “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?” it’s clear this isn’t the same Of Montreal. Even before Kevin Barnes sings “Don’t say that I have changed/ Because, man, of course I have” on “Cato As a Pun,” it is apparent that his supporting cast have packed up their theatric personalities and followed him […]
On the heels of last year’s surprising “The Gulag Orkestar,” Zach Condon seems less poised to strike while the iron is hot, but rather while it is so scorching that it peels up the paint and torches the tapestries in every Eastern European-themed hipster pad. As Beirut, the New Mexico/New Jersey/Missouri/New York-native has found time […]
Like “alternative” and “emo” before it, the term “indie” has morphed into a catch-all for all less-than-easily classified artists. Anything without a clear Top 40 audience or defined section in Virgin Megastores gets stamped with the genre broad enough to include, well, everything. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is an “indie” act in the most […]
To call The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s debut the “natural successor” to Blur’s 1994 breakthrough, “Parklife,” would seem like an easy out for critics of Damon Albarn. Hate him, and this record is a dozen years too late and a futile attempt to grasp those Brit-pop days the Blur-frontman put aside for cartoon […]
In 1998, filmmaker Gus Van Sant set out to make a shot-for-shot remake of the classic suspense film “Psycho,” and was met with a resounding “Why?” Why try to remake a near-perfect film by an oft-perfect filmmaker (Alfred Hitchcock) in an oft-replicated genre (thriller)? If he succeeded, it would just solidify the genius of the […]
John Mellencamp has always been as confusing as he is boring. On his eighth LP (his 13th counting the John Cougar Mellencamp days, and his 20th including the John Cougar era), he continues the rugged balladeering that has become his worn-out trademark. What has never made sense about Mellencamp, though, is his confusing desire to […]
Green Day has always been of the times; the band’s of-the-moment mentality has been constant throughout the California punks’ 19-year career. Since 2004, their political-mindedness and social awareness has helped inform a generation of first-time voters. Prior to that, in the 1990s the band signified both rock’n’roll’s mainstream return to pop punk – a la […]
It never sounded quite right to hear Natalie Portman claim The Shins could “change your life” in one of the all-time great product placement/attempts at indie credibility during the film “Garden State.” Not that the New Mexican foursome weren’t capable of life-altering harmonies, but rather because the group has never seemed aggressive enough to shake […]
It’s too bad Blake Sennet enjoys playing guitar in Rilo Kiley so much. If he was less apart of that overrated, indie folk outfit, there would be more time to concentrate on fronting his side-project, The Elected. But as it stands, the Sennet-lead quartet is reduced to small tours and studio outputs every couple years. […]